Christmas do’ with old work friends in a familiar place. Someone couldn’t make it and I had their roast beef too, I’d to go home early because I was full of food!

#2 – 4th December – Murphy Browns

Another regular appearance. The plate was extra big so the portion looked small, but it was plentiful

#3 – 6th December – Work Canteen

I had to throw this one into me as I had to get to uni after!

#4 – 10 December – Bridge House (Wetherspoons) This was a bit of a sad day in general. Leona was meeting work friends and I had to go to town to buy clothes (work being done in the house meant no washing machine, therefore no clean clothes), so afterwards I walked across town to ‘Spoons to get a re-introduced Christmas dinner. Despite it looking a bit sad (Peas?! No mash but a baked potato?! Also a friend said the turkey looked like dog food!) it tasted alright!

#5 – 13th December, uEat (Ulster University, Jordanstown)

One of my simple joys is, before my classes on Wednesday, getting a chicken goujon wrap, though for one day a year I forego said wrap and get a Christmas Dinner!

Becoming another tradition where I meet some friends for lunch. I think the place thought were were a ‘do because they gave us crackers and sweets. Went for the three courses like a starvo!

#9 – 23rd December, My House

Six years in my house and six years I have a pre-Christmas Dinner with Leona. This one nearly didn’t happen though. The cooker was only hooked to the electric on Tuesday. Turkey was only bought on the Friday. Builders still in the house on the Saturday afternoon. The dining table was only reassembled an hour before the meal was done (by me, as I was cooking the dinner.. and wrapping presents!!!). A stressful few months coming to an end with a nice relaxing Christmas dinner (after the extra stress of cooking it!)

#10 – 25th December, My Folks House

The picture doesn’t do it much justice, but it was nice. Only three types of potato (mash in place of champ!) but for the first time in a Fearon Christmas dinner we had chipolatas!

Like the Charity Shield, this is the usual curtain raiser! A Wetherspoon’s Christmas Dinner, with my old work chum, Alistair! We’ve been doing this for eight years now and this one was the best (they are usually rank)!

#2 – 04/12/15 – Murphy Browns, BelfastNow a regular feature, mainly due to being walking distance to my house. Not as good as last years, but last years was excellent.

With that in mind I decided to tighten up the “rules”. 1st December – 25th December only and no ‘repeats’ (i.e. leftovers don’t count).

#1 – 11/12/14 – Murphy Browns – BelfastI took action on my first day home with another Murphy Browns – because it was quite good the last time (and near my house)!

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#2 – 12/12/14 – RBG – BelfastBack with my old work chums to the same place as last years work do. Sadly this year the Christmas Dinner didn’t have any roasties! Shock!

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#3 – 17/12/14 – Work CanteenThe fact there were roasties gave it points over the last one.

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#4 – 18/12/14 – Sainsburys – HolywoodNo ham! And Yorkshire Pudding was still a bit frozen. But at least it had roasties – plus first mince pie of the year.

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#5 – 19/12/14 – Northern Whig – BelfastAgain with no roasties! Up until this point Murphy Browns was front runner!

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#6 – 21/12/14 – My HouseThe 3rd Annual Belfast House Xmas dinner – this year Leona made it and there were no oven breaking down drama like last year. I even tasted half a sprout (wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be – still not nice.). Was tasty.

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#7 – 25/12/14 – Folks HouseChristmas Day – Unlike last year we didn’t have three types of potato – we had four.. FOUR.. types of potato (Champ, Roast, Garlic Cream and new addition Baby Boil)… yum yum yum.

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Only seven – but would have been eight if I counted the boxing day left overs (like I did last year) and ten if I counted the two in November… that would bring me level with last year… which isn’t bad seeing I was out of the country for two weeks.

When I posted about the globe I realised I should post about my pocket watch, nay, three pocket watches.

My dapper Great Grandfather

Last year I was in my grandparents house, and sitting under the picture of my Great-Grandparents (above). My mother found it amusing, as apparently I looked like my Great-Grandfather (I don’t see it either – probably the big nose). I had a look and noted that my great-grandfather was looking quite dapper in the photograph, and I was quite impressed with his pocket watch. That’s it. One innocent comment.

Christmas time arrives. I still go to my folks for Christmas and we open our presents together after dinner (No, not first thing in the morning – we’re all adults ffs!). My sister said that I would be impressed by her present – and I was. To my amusement I got, yes, a pocket watch.

So, in the evening I visit Leona at her folks (and get a second dinner) and told her about the pocket watch. She looked a bit annoyed. She had already told me a gift she got for me hadn’t arrived yet. She told me it was a pocket watch – but I didn’t mind as I will have two pocket watches.

By the middle of January, pocket watch #2 hadn’t arrived. It was coming from Hong Kong, no less, and had to give four weeks delivery. Once this expired Leona emailed the seller and they kindly sent another. This one arrived in three days. Yay! Two pocket watches.

A week later the original package arrived (you could tell by the dispatch note). I could have sent it back to the seller but, probably, it would cost more to post it to Hong Kong that what it was worth. Morally I felt fine with this logic, especially as it meant I have three pocket watches!

Sadly, I don’t have a waistcoat to put a watch in or have to attend any events, which require formal wear, any time soon. But when I do a pocket watch will make an appearance and I will milk it! I may even have a watch for each pocket!!

Keeping with the olde time gent look: I also have a pipe – but that doesn’t require a whole post!

I fucking love Christmas Dinner! Excuse the bad language but I really fucking do! The month of December usually fits in quite a few Christmas dinners but sadly 2013 was a relatively light year – I only had ten. However, 2013 was the first year I decided to “live post”, on Facebook, a picture of each Turkey and Ham. So to those who didn’t know better, thought I was being excessive!

Anyway – here they are:

#1 – 2nd December 2013 – The Arches Sandwich Bar

It was the first Monday in December and a colleague informed me that the Arches was doing a Christmas Dinner in a box – he told me they were good so I thought why not.

#2 – 3rd December 2013 – Wetherspoons

A guy I used to work with and I have an annual tradition of getting a Christmas Dinner and Pint from Wetherspoons. We were supposed to get chipotle sausages with it but they had ran out – we got normal sausages instead. Not the same really.

This was at a cousin’s wedding – by chance we were served Turkey and Ham.

McKay review:

Mashed potato added in already has it at a higher level than yesterday, but the croquettes just take it to a new plane of Christmas! It’s like he just served it up on a plate and said “There’s your dinner son, knife and fork all ready, all you have to do is eat it” Take a boo! 8/10

Samantha just pointed out that the croquettes are actually sausages. I stand by my original score though.

#4 – 6th December 2013 – RGB

Work Chirstmas dinner.

That’s a solid 9/10 effort right there.

#5 – 8th December 2013 – My House

This was the first of the home made ones. It’s turkey breast that I cut in half and put stuffing in the middle, then wrapped in bacon. It still counts!

Is that turkey or chicken? If it’s turkey, 8/10, if it’s chicken then just 6/10.

#6 – 12th December 2013 – Espresso East

I got this one from the cafe near work. I usually only get coffee here and an occasional fry but I saw someone the day before get one so I was tempted. I was taking away but they even gave me a plate (I gave it back afterwords of course)!

Leona and I go to our respective folk’s houses for Christmas. Last year we had “our own” Christmas dinner in Belfast – which I want to make a annual thing (any excuse for a Xmas dinner). Last year she did most of the work so for ages I was saying “This year I am going to do EVERYTHING!”.

It was all well and good, I had the Ham marinating for 24 hours (honey with rum), put streaky bacon on the turkey, had my veg and spuds prepared. All good to go. Turned the oven on and stuck the Turkey and the ham. The meat was in for a wee while and I turned on the top oven to stick the the roast potatoes and the veg (coated in honey) for roasting. I was chatting to Leona and heard a “beeeaaarrr” noise – the oven had powered down! Erm, shit. Turned the oven off on the mains and reset the dials. Turned it back on at the mains and the clock reappeared. Phew, turned the dials, the light in the oven came back on for a second then died again!

I started to get really annoyed as the meat wouldn’t be usable. My auntie lives next door but she was away so I couldn’t get to her house. I phoned another auntie who lives down the road and has a spare key. Thankfully she was near and was able to give me the key within a few minutes! This meant I had to bring all the food next door and lead to alot of darting back and fourth. Her oven wasn’t big enough for everything so had to do a bit of juggling and because the timer was gone in my oven I had to guess how long to put the turkey in for.

I ended up sitting in her kitchen by myself for a few hours while her dog, Oscar, was at the door whinging to get in. I tried to keep him happy with some of the streaky bacon. While I was looking after the roasted goods – Leona sorted out the mash and sprouts, so I didn’t get to do everything.

Still, once I was finished, I was chuffed I got it made despite the obstacles. No McKay review though – he didn’t know the effort I had to go through!

The oven didn’t need replaced. It just needed a new fuse.

#8 – 22nd December 2013 – My House

Leftovers from night before. No McKay review.

#9 – 25th December 2013 – The Folk’s

With three types of potato (mash, roast and garlic creamy).

McKay managed to get his last review in

Excellent. 9/10. I don’t normally like cabbage but that looks great. One point taken off for not basing the dinner to end just before or start just after the Queens speech.

#10 – 26th December 2013 – Folk’s House

Leftovers.

Yeah so that’s it. When I was a student I probably had one everyday so this is light in comparison. Also, I’m sure I had turkey in Leona’s folk’s house, but I can’t remember if it was just a sandwich or it was a full dinner and I just forgot to take a photo. Ah well.